Promethatron
by Prime627
Summary: The Autobots land on a strange world and have many questions. After befriending a native, they think their answers will be answered faster, but more questions rack up...one thing becomes clear. They can't stay for long.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note to be Read: Promethatron is based off of Halo's creation (and loosely the movie The Martian), the Promethians, which belongs to Microsoft and not me or my brother. Transformers is owned by Hasbro and only Hasbro, and not by me. This is inspired by Halo's Promethians and Transformers, creating the following idea: What if Cybertron had a sister planet that was far more accelerated than it's dwarf sister? This is Promethatron's story. You have been warned for awesomeness, gramatical errors, and plot holes. Read with caution.**

"Space travel is a thing!"

The selected mechs and femmes were brave, intellegent, and could crunch the required numbers in a record amount of time. They were clever, creative...and they were chosen to leave. If their intelligence was to be used, then it would be used to discover worlds. The first leap of Cybertronians to find a new home and claim it.

The launch went well. The creation of the ship was monitored by Alpha Trion, a young mech with brilliant ideas. In his servo was his Covenant, something he was never seen without. The famed Quill rested on an open page, watching the ordeal with disinterest. The ship was called Aries after a vote that went seven to eight. The other name was the Ark, and the name was due to be recycled in a new age. But for now, it rested in the back of everyone's processor, everyone, it seemed, except Alpha Trion, who had already seen ages into the future, and things looked dim...

The mechs and femmes waved their final goodbyes, and then they were gone, whisked away into unfamiliar territory. On a playful whim, one of the mechs called themselves Space Pirates, and whenever they could transmit and receive messages from Cybertron, they demanded to be called as such.

But then communication was lost upon arrival on a large world dwarfing Cybertron by a thousand times and then some. The world was new, strange, half machine and half organic. The femmes and mechs were lost in the beauty, and they proceeded cautiously.

However, they were not cautious enough...

 **ooo**

Optimus sat in his chair and he watched the stars through the viewport. Ironhide was yapping to a startled Jetwing, who gripped his desk and leaned further and further away from the red mech the closer and closer he got. The old mech was so wrapped up in his story that he didn't know that the gory details were probably better left saved in his processor. Bluestreak was busy with Prowl, arguing with his older brother about one thing or another. The Lambo Twins were, thank Primus, present and working as they should, save the occasional squabble and flick of the audio. Ratchet was taking stock of medical supplies, Energon, and the ever-present pink dye that had been smuggled aboard. Optimus huffed and shifted, moving his helm to be supported by his other servo.

They were lost, he mumbled. We are lost, he corrected. "Where are we?" he asked, probably for the thousandth time. Ratchet was getting irritated, and instead of answering the Prime, he growled.

Jetwing, finding his escape, stood up and offered his opinion. "Well, I am in the middle of a _horrible_ story Ironhide was telling me about how it rained acid and he watched his own partner disintegrate before his optics and he said _That's what you get for stealing my Energon goodies_ , so I now know what to do with you all who are stealing _my_ goodies!"

The room went silent. The Twins stopped harassing each other and they blinked fearful optics at the Seeker before the red twin elbowed the yellow one and growled, _thanks for that_.

Optimus got to his pedes and walked to Perceptor, who was charting their position. Star charts were taped all around his makeshift cubicle and he looked at the Prime when he got close. "Where are we?" Optimus asked again.

Perceptor pointed with the tip of his stylus, ink still on the pointed tip, and he made a small mark between two large circles drawn on the paper. "That's us," he chirped and he leaned back in his chair. "We are in space."

"Gathered," Optimus said. He nodded slightly. "I mean, however, where are we in space based on our current surroundings?"

"Ah." Perceptor shuffled his empty pages. "I don't know."

"Thank you, Perceptor." Optimus walked back to his chair and he sat down, gripping the armrests. "Any logical guess?"

"Lost," Jetwing offered, reaching up to turn off the audio Ironhide was yakking into. He obviously relaxed. "But I am getting readings on some possible sister worlds."

Optimus felt Orion Pax shift inside him and he bolted to his peds to see the readings. As Orion Pax, he had read a lot about the sister worlds, like Aquatron and Velocitron. They had interested him just as this one did. He smiled at the readings. "Do we have time to dip low enough to see if there is Energon?"

"It wouldn't hurt," Ratchet said as he reviewed his stocks. "A trip down would only burn a percentage of what we have that is not being used for ammo."

"And if we ever need ammo," Ironhide said as he tore off a part of his chair and shoved it in his mouth. "We can crunch metal."

Jetwing shuddered in disgust. "That will be the day I officially sign off on life. Primus," he said, leaning back in his chair, his optics closed and his arms outstretched, "take me before I must resort to cannibalism. My chair has too much to live for...and Ironhide must taste as bad as he smells..."

"Enough," Optimus said before the older mech could get involved. "Sideswipe, alter our course."

 **ooo**

The planet came into view, and Optimus, face pressed to the viewport, was lost in its beauty, but Jetwing remained unimpressed.

"Do we have the reserves to skip this planet and head off to the next one?"

Perceptor looked up from his map. "The next planet is too far away for our current reserves."

The Seeker stomped his pede and growled. "Darn it! I don't like plants." He curled his claws up and shuffled away as if the planet's inhabitants might reach up and touch him.

Everything was going well, up until the point Perceptor came back with disappointing readings.

"Energon breach" was all it took for Optimus to give the signal to land the Ark immediately, and it seemed a good time for him to let his inner Pax out and to look around at this sister planet.

When they landed, the native life ran away and hid, chirping and growling lightly at the new arrivals. Optimus regarded them with interest, and Jetwing regarded the grass under his peds with disgust and shuffled his pedes, wearing the grass away where he stood so he just stood on earth. He relaxed minorly.

"Spread out and search for Energon," Optimus ordered. He armed himself not with guns, but with observation jars and nets.

"Let it not be said we are being led by a pure soldier," Jetwing remarked and he charged his gun, promptly firing at vines that looked like they were going to touch him. He ended up just ducking beneath the charred remains of the vines (that stubbornly held onto life) and he lifted a piece of Energon that glowed faintly in the disgusting weeds of a disgusting planet filled with disgusting organic life. "I've got Energon!" He held the piece in the air, purring. "Who's going to lick it? One lick per crew member." He held it to his optic. "How many licks does it take to dissolve a tiny crystal of Blue?"

"Thirty," someone barked. "And there's thirty-two of us."

"That's unfortunate," Jetwing said and he tucked the crystal into his subspace, "that you had time enough to count."

Optimus chuckled to himself and he knelt, gently touching a small creature resting on a log. It chirped at him and he chirped back, but the little thing hopped away and the Prime sat back on his heels, looking up at the towering trees. "This place is amazing!"

"Thanks for helping, Prime," Ironhide sneered as he wrestled with vines. "This isn't a field trip. This is Let's Fix The Ark and Get Off This Planet!"

He ignored his friend and he moved the weeds aside to watch the little hopping thing, unscrewing a jar lid and holding it so the creature would hop into the container. It did and Optimus secured the lid and subspaced it. "I am merely observing our surroundings as a breach large enough to take the Ark down in a matter of seconds will take days to fix."

Groans echoed around the forest, but were interrupted when an excited Sideswipe lifted up a complete shard of Energon. "I got Energon!"

A twig snapped in front of Optimus and he turned his gaze ahead of him, his optics narrowing. There was a flash of light and then...nothing. He frowned and he got to his peds. "Go wander. We meet back here in a joor."

He stepped deeper into the forest, moving aside large leaves and more vines until he came face to face with a wall covered in ivy, lichen, and moss. He touched the engravings on it and he frowned. Some of it resembled Cybertronian! He scolded himself at his surprise. This was a sister planet, after all, but still...he allowed himself a flicker of surprise. He patted the metal wall and he ran his servo along it as he walked. While his back was turned, a being pulled itself away from it and sprinted, smacking right into Jetwing.

The Seeker laid on his back, the being twitching and whimpering in shock, kicking one leg in the air as it looked around. Optimus ran to him and rolled the native off Jetwing.

"Came right out of the woodwork!" He pointed at the wall and then at the native, staring at it's narrow face and blue visor. It lowered its helm and gave a low whistle, trembling lightly. Four claws on each ped curled into the grass and it tucked its arms to its belly and chest, carrying a weapon of some kind. Jetwing stood slowly, his servos out to show he meant it no harm. Optimus reached out to touch, and splayed his servo across the visor. It whistled again, panting softly.

Jetwing took another step back and stood upright, sighing. "It looks like a bag of framework, but it's got the body of a brick wall."

When he spoke, the native shifted and the armor plates on it acted as though it wasn't even secured properly, and it shifted as well, moving and acting like a living thing around the skinny being. Optimus ran his servo down across one of the levetating plates and lifted it, but before he could peek underneath, it bolted and sprayed Jetwing in the organic material he detested.

"Salad. I am covered...in salad." He shook himself off and growled at the Prime. "You don't _touch_ things that come out of walls. I don't know if nobody told you this, but you don't _touch anything_ wall-oriented! Unless it itself is a wall and not _straight outta the woodwork_!"

"Stop saying that. That wall was not made of an organic material." Optimus studied his servo. The native didn't feel like the wall. It felt like he had touched a Cybertronian.

"It's my saying. Don't take it away from me." Jetwing flicked a stringy bit of weed off his wing and he shuddered and whimpered. "I'm covered in green! Eww!"

"Stop whining." Optimus looks at where the native had gone, then back at the wall. "Come here." He walked over to it and heard Jetwing behind him. He touched some of the runes on it and he looked at Jetwing. The Seeker stopped focusing on the green still on his wings and he frowned.

"Cybertronian?" He scoffed. "I know I sound surprised, but I truly am. You would think that their language would slowly adapt to those used on this planet, which clearly it sort of has, but...it's still Cybertronian."

Optimus rapped his knuckles on the metal. "This metal is not Cybertronian-based."

Jetwing nodded and he looked at it, backing up to see more of it. "But that native...?"

"Felt like a Cybertronian." Optimus looked at the servo that had rested on the plate. "It felt smooth, not servo-made..."

"Like a Cybertronian does." Jetwing nodded and he touched the wall again. "But this is rough, has tool-marks on it, and it's imperfect. It's a mix of every kind of metal known to us." He frowned and shook his helm. "Prime, this isn't a mystery we need to solve. In a couple days, we'll be gone, and we don't need to care about freaky natives coming out of walls."

"Mm."

Together, Seeker and Prime walked back to the Ark, but under the watchful gaze of blue visors and narrow faces.


	2. Chapter 2

Optimus woke up to the sound of metal being torn away from the ship. He got out of his chair and crept towards the exit, peeking out. He gasped softly.

Beings larger and more heavily armored than the natives, but still surrounded by the same levetating plates, were tearing into the hull, devouring the metal. Erect audios flicked and flattened, and the larger one snapped its helm up and it barked, an awful screeching sound. The others around him dropped onto all fours and flattened themselves to the ground. They yipped back and then the larger one, the alpha it seemed, charged into the forest. Optimus sat down on the ground and sighed, getting up to survey the damage. He groaned. They would not be able to repair this damage in a few days. It would take weeks, and set them back months...

He looked up at the sound of chirping and he gasped. A native was stepping out of the forest, plates shifting and reorganizing on its body like a Bot trying to transform but unable to. It tread lightly on the grass, barely disturbing the vegetation. It came to a stop, switching its gaze from Optimus to the hull. It stood upright, and Optimus got to his pedes. He took a slow step toward it, and it took a few steps back, making soft noises in fear. Its visor dimmed and it lowered its helm and upper body to be parallel to the ground. It growled lightly. The Prime stopped.

As soon as he stopped moving, the native stood straight up and chirped. Optimus smiled and he chuckled lightly. The native's helm moved almost bird-like, quick jerking movements resulting in the native looking another direction. It cocked its helm, chest moving rapidly. Just like a bird. Optimus offered his servo to the native, and it studied it, breathing softer than a butterfly, and it took a single step forward before it whirled around and gazed at the forest. It gave a shriek and there was an echoing call. It turned slowly to look at the Prime, then it bolted into the forest.

"What are you creatures?" Optimus sighed, sitting back down. He shook his helm. "If you are Cybertronian," he thought aloud, "what happened to you that changed you so drastically?"

 **ooo**

Jetwing caught sight of the hull. "It looks like Unicron came down and took a bite out of it!" He dropped his tools, rounding on the Prime. "Didn't you say the damage was minor?"

"I said the damage was minor compared to the breach."

"That's not what I heard," the Seeker muttered, but he sighed and nodded. "Fine. But either way, it will be weeks before we can fly again."

"I figured," Optimus sighed and he looked back at the forest. "Perhaps we could salvage the metal...?"

Jetwing looked at him and raised an optic ridge. "Are you kidding? I'm _not_ touching any sacred wall that will curse me with cosmic rust, even if I'm lost in space and just recently crash landed on the most _disgusting_ planet in this galaxy!"

Optimus nodded. And he didn't want to offend the natives. The last thing he wanted was those beings that did the damage to come back and decide the necessary punishment. He sighed again and he looked out into the forest. "Then let's find more Energon. We can fix the hull and the breach at the same time, but we need Energon in order to fly."

After a salvage team was launched, Optimus ducked into the forest again, this time not looking for creatures to study. He already had more than a few in his subspace. He was looking for Energon, just like everyone else.

But there was something about him that brought the natives in, and it was impossible to tell if it was the same native every time, except for one thing.

The native gave a low, long chirp when it discovered the Prime digging in the dirt. He avoided its gaze and it came closer, breathing down on his back. It chirped again and began digging with him. When he looked up in surprise, he saw his servo print on its visor and he smiled.

"Hey."

It chirped again and dug faster, and Optimus couldn't tell if it was helping him or if it thought the Prime was just digging for fun, but before he could ask, the native had uncovered a shard of Energon. It stepped back and stood tall, curling its arms against its chest and belly again. It chirped.

Optimus sat back on his heels. "What are you?" He repeated the question in Ancient Cybertronian and he watched the being flutter its servos in delight. It chattered back to him, but the meaning behind the words was lost and he sighed in frustration.

"This is getting us nowhere," he growled. He lifted the Energon and he subspaced it. The native tilted its helm as it watched, then looked at him. It gave a low, soft noise and it tilted its helm the other way.

"Hey, Prime!" Jetwing crashed through the foliage with two Energon shards of impressive size on his shoulders and he smiled at the Prime, but the native chirped its recognition and the Seeker's wings shot up. "No! Not again!" He threw the Energon into his subspace and he rounded on the native. "What do you think you're doing? Where's your wall? Let me shove you back in..."

But it didn't move and the Seeker growled loudly. It growled back, mimicking him. Jetwing gaped at it and then at Prime. "Did you teach it its disrespectful ways?"

"No," Optimus chuckled. "It is trying to communicate. I spoke the Ancient language to it and it responded."

Jetwing looked at the native and he scoffed, but he spoke in Ancient Cybertronian. "Who are you?"

It chattered back and hopped from one pede to the other. It stood still when it finished and it looked between Jetwing and Optimus expectantly. Optimus only chuckled and Jetwing was dumbfounded.

"This is unbelievable. It understands Ancient Cybertronian."

"Perhaps it is a secondary language. Only used in certain occasions."

"Are you suggesting that this native is bilingual?" He looked at the native. "Are you?"

It only watched the Seeker with a blank visor, but its body was trembling and shivering lightly.

"Optimus, this native is broken."

Optimus snorted and walked closer to the native, running his servo across its visor. It leaned into him and gave a rough purr, jerking back when it heard a call and it shrieked back. Glancing at Jetwing and Optimus once more, it bolted, and this time Jetwing was spared from his vegetation bath. He ran after it, to Optimus' surprise.

"You want to know what it is, don't you?" That got Optimus to follow him.

The native was fast, running with long strides. It jumped, hopped, and dodged fallen trees, rocks, and other metallic walls that spawned similar looking natives. Optimus and Jetwing managed to stay in hot pursuit until suddenly, they arrived at the mouth of a cave.

"You first," Jetwing ordered. "Sir," he added.

"Did you just give your superior an order to go first and then add _sir_ to cover it up?"

"I made a valiant attempt! And yes I did!" He turned towards the cave. "If I die, I will kill you personally." He walked in, turning on the lights down one side of his wing on to see. "Got some...drawings."

Optimus walked in after him and looked at the drawings on the cave walls. "This is also Cybertronian." He touched the drawings. "Everything matches up. The language, the walls, and now these. Look, they resemble the drawings on our own ancient artifacts back at home."

"And look," Jetwing offered, tapping on a drawing. "This kinda looks like the Ark." He squinted. "Six bots coming out of it."

"It is their origin story," Optimus whispered. He moved in closer, peering at the drawing. "It has to be. Look. The six bots are obviously Cybertronian. They were probably launched into space to settle worlds to turn them into a sister world, you know, for trade."

"I know what a sister world does," Jetiwng snapped. "But what I want to know is why aren't any of them Cybertronian-looking? I mean, I guess through natural selection, they changed and altered themselves to survive soley on this planet in this forest, but...there should still be a few resembling our Ancients."

"There is. Just one." Optimus touched a drawing, frowning. "If this story is true, five of the six bots died, leaving just a femme. She mentioned only as Her."

"So..." Jetwing looked at Optimus. "What now?"

"Now we return to the ship with our findings and we do a little research."

Jetwing shrugged with a shoulder and walked out, leading his Prime who ran his servo over the drawings one last time before leaving. Blue visors watched their departure, low growls exchanged between them.

 **ooo**

Optimus set out every datapad he owned, which was a large amount of things he had nabbed from the Hall when the war turned ugly. Alpha Trion had permitted this and then waved him off after placing an ancient pad on the top of the pile. Optimus started with that one first. It was older than the ones he was used to. The newer ones were completely touch-screen. A little further down in the pile were pads with little arrow keys and a cursor Optimus could move around while using the arrow keys and the single circle button in the middle. The older ones were able to be opened, and between two hard covers were pages and pages full of information. Optimus had to be careful as this version of the pad had been discontinued due to mechs and femmes alike accidently ripping the pages out.

Jetwing looked up from his data pad, digits resting lightly on the arrow keys. He groaned. "Nothing on an Ark-like ship launching into space to land on our Saladtron."

"We are not calling it that," Perceptor barked from his cubicle. Ratchet growled in agreement. They were busy sketching out the beings they had seen on the planet, arguing about various things, but agreeing that anything Jetwing said was ridiculous.

"Oh, oh! I got something." Jetwing stood up. "Something called the Aries was launched into space and after losing signal with it for several solar cycles, the scientists deemed it lost and space-travel was put on hold."

Optimus rested his helm on his servo. "Do you think that this Aries is the one that landed here?"

"Has to be. The time matches up to the text we are seeing on the walls." Jetwing set the pad down. "It's time we looked for that ship."

 **ooo**

Optimus, Jetwing, and Perceptor were voted to go out and find the Aries, leaving everyone else to stay behind in the safety of the Ark. No one complained, except Perceptor, who whimpered at the idea of going for days into the unknown to find a ship that may or may not exist. Jetwing was enthusiastic.

"At least I'm going to do something with my life before I die! Something else to scratch off my bucket list!"

They had been travelling for three days before Optimus' native friend came across them again. It ran by with a rodent in its claws, but mid-stride it stopped and dropped the dead thing in front of the Prime. Inside it was a shard of Energon that it had apparently eaten and died due to its toxicity to organic life. Perceptor was repulsed. Jetwing wanted to be the first bot to eat an Energon shard that had been first eaten by a rat the size of Optimus' arm.

The native kept coming back after that, depositing random gifts at the same time of day no matter where the Prime was. Perceptor even got to touch it, and some nights it would come just to lie down in the dirt and listen to the mech talk, its visor on Perceptor, but always lifting to Optimus whenever he shifted or made a noise.

Jetwing would scratch behind its audio and the native would roll over and squirm on its back, writhing and grunting while the grit beneath it relieved the itches it had. The Seeker would always laugh and the native would always flick dirt at him.

"Sol eight," Perceptor said as he got up and yawned. The native was sleeping soundly on its side, its back against Optimus. "It's still here?" For two days, the native remained with Optimus, never leaving and never straying too far. Jetwing began to call it Fido, and Killer, and even fondly Cujo whenever it tackled the Prime and bowled him over.

"Yes," Optimus said. "It hasn't left since the sixth day. You know this."

"Yeah, but it usually leaves for the night and comes back when the sun is at its peak!" Perceptor jumped to his pedes. "We have to make it go back to its home."

The native woke up and stretched. It watched Perceptor as it got up and it turned and walked off, calling into the forest. At an answering cry, it tore off, stepping on Jetwing as it left.

The Seeker whimpered "mother" and went into a fetal position. "I feel like Primus just stepped on me..."

Optimus hated to see the native go. It had become his favorite companion and he missed it already. But Perceptor was getting a gut feeling that could not be ignored.

"I feel the ship is close," he repeated for the eigth time that journey. Once every day, and Jetwing was beginning to have gut feelings, too.

"He's saying it every day so that one of these days, he'll be right and he can rub it into our faces," the Seeker groaned as he got to his peds, his wings down. Optimus couldn't disagree with him.

Perceptor led the way, weighed down with all his gear, and Optimus and Jetwing trailed behind, both stopping to try and read the walls when they could and eager to read the drawing-stories when they found them.

"Her keeps coming up," Jetwing remarked. He had looked up the Ancient word for Her and had found that it was one word that could be expected to be mentioned on the metal walls. Optimus agreed with him again and he touched the drawings of the six bots surrounded by shapes that resembled the natives with thin faces and visors. He jogged to keep up with Perceptor and then Jetwing was behind him, shaking his helm.

"We're never finding that shi-!" His groan was turned into a yelp as he tripped and fell, Optimus catching him before he could hit the ground. Perceptor reluctantly turned back.

Jutting out of the earth was a ship part, and when Optimus tugged it out, he found it was the siding of an ancient ship. He swept the dirt away from the metal surface and frowned.

"Cybertronian metal."

Perceptor turned back around and began running in the direction the debris went. Optimus and Jetwing went through the weeds, uncovering other plates and material. Jetwing found an entire chair wrapped in weeds. He sat in it and relaxed, sighing.

"Mission accomplished."

"Barely. Where is the rest of it?"

Perceptor made a distressed sound and Optimus ran after it, nearly bowling the scientist over.

They stood in a clearing made, possibly, when a ship crash-landed and spread its toxic fuel around, exposing only earth that had just begun shooting up grass. Off to the other side of the clearing rested a ship, half-cut open and leaking its internal parts into the clearing probably like it had since it landed. It seemed as though nobody had even touched it. Perceptor walked to it, and Optimus looked around for the natives, but they seemed to have avoided this part. Their calls stopped echoing through the trees.

Jetwing was the first to step pede inside and he looked around. Perceptor shone his lights around the area and Optimus immediately went to the stack of datapads. Some of them were still functioning and he tucked them into his subspace. He watched Jetwing, who had sunk into another chair and was very obviously falling asleep. Perceptor was kneeling by the crates of supplies.

"This ship was supposed to support the crew for thousands of years, and by the look of these supplies, they barely made a dent in them when there was a crash landing. They didn't even come back for them."

"So they trusted the natives..." He remembered the drawings on the cave. Five of the six bots had died, but their causes were not listed. He frowned.

Six bunks in the back of the ship supported the drawings, and names were written on the metal bases and on the walls and pretty much on every surface available.

"I guess saying this journey was boring is an understatement." Jetwing touched one of the names and frowned. "This one is almost translateable."

"What is it?"

"Skysomething." He pulled his servo away. "Optimus, none of the names were listed in the datapad when I looked it up, and that only happens if they did something awful and the archivists decided it was best that their names be forgotten..."

Optimus nodded. He knew this. He also knew that the names of the bots who were deemed best forgotten were never recycled to a new bot crawling out of the Well. He walked back to the main room and scowled. "What happened on this journey?"

Perceptor was packing the ship's supplies into his own already-full pack that he secured to his back. He had come up with a snappy term for it as well. "My backpack is full, Prime."

"It was full when you left, Perceptor."

The mech growled.

"We can use the metal from this ship's hull and weld them to the Ark." Jetwing was spinning in his chair. "Just a suggestion."

Outside, Optimus was pulling the metal off, setting it in a pile. It would take only a few days to walk back, Perceptor guessed, if they skipped camping at night, which sounded good to Jetwing. He had agreed full-sparkedly without even considering what it might meant: No more of his beloved snack times.

As he stripped the final piece of metal away from the hull, the native came back, chirping anxiously. It watched them at the edge of the clearing, which made Optimus frown. Usually nothing made the native hesitate from running to him, but there it was, toeing the line of new grass in the shadows cast by the forest. It chirped louder, shivering.

Optimus walked to it, attempting to coax it out, but it was as though it was chained to the forest and wasn't able to step out onto the clearing. Instead, he watched it lower itself and whimper and chirp softly up at him. He reached down to pet its helm and it relaxed only slightly, but when he turned around to walk towards the metal pieces to bring them back to the Ark, it started up again.

"Its calls are going to bring in something much bigger than it," Perceptor remarked as he walked towards the native. "We had better leave."

Jetwing ran at it, arms open wide. "We're coming, Fido!"

It yipped when it saw Jetwing and it ran in a circle, but Optimus, weighed down with the metal hull pieces, moved slower. And the native's noises did bring in beings much larger.

The sound of trees splintering behind him, Optimus didn't need to look behind him to know that the large natives were coming out, and they were not afraid of this crash site. He heard their growls and felt the vibrations of their steps under his pedes.

Pursued by the larger natives, the three Autobots and the littler native bolted through the forest, weaving through obsticles that would slow down their pursuers. And it worked. The native slowed down and allowed the Autobots to jog. It altered course, stopping when the Autobots didn't follow it. It chirped.

"Camp's this way, Fido," Jetwing said. "You know, back to the Ark."

But the native continued to chirp, and Perceptor whimpered. "If it doesn't stop, those _things_ are going to come back!"

Optimus walked after their native friend and Perceptor was on his heels. Jetwing took a little longer to persuade, but then he was walking after them.

"You guys realize that we _are_ walking in the wrong direction, don't you?"

"I trust our native friend," Optimus said over his shoulder.

"I trust it too, but I also want to get off this planet!" Jetwing whined and looked up at the darkening sky. "But hey, what do I know, right?"

Optimus chuckled softly at the worrying Seeker. He knew that while he had this native, nothing would go wrong...but there was a flicker of doubt. Could he really trust this native?


End file.
